The Astral Plane
by Shmeebly
Summary: After the events of The Arena, Ankary takes Shiro back to the astral plane where he fought Zarkon for control over the black lion. (S2E7: Space Mall) where he teaches him defense against ethereal forces.


Author's Note:

Before you read this one-shot you'll want to read my fanfiction The Arena if you want to understand more. Otherwise you'll be a little confused. I'm really proud of it so please go read it. If not that's fine too. It's like a 37K word fanfiction after all. Seriously, though, it's better written than this hot mess express.

Here's a brief TL;DR of The Arena: The Blade of marmor sends Team Voltron on a quest to help one of their allies take down the coliseums like the one Shiro, Matt and Sam Holt were trapped. However, Shiro is nervous because of his past rauma from there, but he accepts. When he finds out that his old cellmate, Ankary Blackwell (My OC), is the ally the Blade was talking about he trumps his fear with his sense of duty to help, but not without sporadic memories of their time together in the arena popping up along the way. This is after they capture and execute the Galra running the show, Kaizar (made-up OC).

Okay, back to your reularly scheduled program.

* * *

The Astral Plane

After Kaizar's execution he and the other paladins were curious about souls. The Dayan explained that a soul is the very essence of your being, pure energy. It's the only part of you that exists in every plane. Every dimension and alternate dimension, every universe and parallel universe, every realm and every version of yourself both inside and outside there is a piece of one soul. It's a connection to everything all at once and the infinite possibilities.

All Ankary did was remove Kaizar's soul from his vessel in this current universe. Kaizar may exist somewhere else with his soul and vessel intact, but the paladins don't need to concern themselves with that. Comprehension of what he was saying flew over most of their heads. Pidge was the only one that could follow more than the others but even she had her limits. Humans are not designed to comprehend everything.

It wasn't until later that Shiro decided to come join him sitting against the wall of the training room. Ankary was busy writing up his report on his screen for the recently completed mission. As usual he didn't greet the black paladin with anything other than indifference. "So I've been thinking about what you were saying. About souls," Shiro admitted. Ankary paused in his typing and glanced over at him. "Yeah. I can't really explain it, but I think I understand it. A while back I was with Black and I think I had an outer body experience. I was with Black, but not physically. Zarkon was there too. He wanted control over Black, but I wouldn't let him so we fought until Black decided to take my side and save me."

Ankary lifted a brow. He fully turned his attention to Shiro. He sensed something ethereal or surreal in his aura. Closing off his report, he opened a text window: _You were conscious on an astral plane?_ Shiro read the message a few times before he understood the question. "I think so." Ankary looked away as if he were thinking. Interesting. How did he manage to transcend his own existence? Humans have done it before, but only when they are about to be born or die. Even then it was beyond their control. Humans cannot consciously transverse between realities at the drop of a hat.

He turned back to Shiro with a rather mischievous smirk, tail flicking with excitement. _Would you like to learn more?_ At that he could feel Shiro's aura drop to caution or nervousness, but it slowly bloomed to curiosity. "Knowing you this is going to be a hands-on lesson, isn't it?" The Dayan nodded and closed his screen, locking his bands. Gracefully he stood up and gestured for Shiro to follow him. The black paladin blindly did so, as he's done in the past. Together they found a small private room somewhere in the recesses of the castle. Ankary made sure the door was locked behind them.

Shiro stood in the middle of the small room, but before he could question Ankary further he was stopped. Quicker than lightning Ankary grabbed his wrist and pulled him closer. He shot out his other arm and slammed the palm of his hand dead center in Shiro's chest. The black paladin's eyes flew open and he gasped as the wind was knocked out of him. A moment later and he collapsed onto the floor. Ankary moved his body into a more comfortable position before sitting down, legs crossed and back straight. He laced his fingers together in his lap and closed his eyes. Soon his very essence was spirited away far from its vessel.

* * *

Shiro coughed and gasped for breath. He shot up into a sitting position and hunched over, pressing a hand to his chest. Damn that was a hard hit. The sound of footsteps caught his attention. When he looked around, he saw Ankary standing there, perfectly calm, arms folded across his chest, waiting. Getting to his feet, he took a look around. They were no longer in the castle. They were nowhere near it, in fact. All around them was nothing but the vastness of space. No planets or stars were near them. They were all off in the distance. The colors of light against a black backdrop popped with such vibrancy. He could hardly believe it when he saw color that he'd never seen before. Galaxies, nebula, clusters of stars, a couple of supernovae in the distance, it was breath taking. Where were they?

 _Your thoughts are so annoying. A little silence would be much appreciated._ Shiro jumped when he heard it. The voice echoed in his head, no discernable direction or distance. It was like all of his senses became obsolete. He could no longer rely on them to tell him what reality was. He looked over at Ankary, who had an annoyed look on his face. Was Ankary the source of that voice? His first instinct was to speak and ask verbally, but when he tried, not a single sound came from his mouth. _Do not be foolish. You cannot speak here. Sound does not travel in a vacuum like this. However, your thoughts are very noisy._

How can you speak? Shiro thought to himself, but Ankary already made it clear that he wasn't the only one sharing his thoughts.

 _I cannot speak. You only think I can. Your mind is interpreting my thoughts into something you can understand. My "voice" is what you imagine it to be. The sound, tone, pitch, even how the sentences are pieced together, all of that is created by what you think I would sound like if I could speak._ The Dayan approached him and pointed to his head. _Be careful what you think. I can hear every thought, sense your aura, feel your emotions._

Why can't he hear Ankary's thoughts? The Dayan is still just as cryptic as before.

Ankary scoffed. _I have much more experience than you do. Blocking off my thoughts and emotions is something I have mastered, but it can be learned through diligence and meditation. If you learn it, you can also block off ethereal forces and disappear from the radar. Zarkon cannot find you or the black lion neither in the physical realm nor the astral realm where his druids can._

Shiro paused. It had been hell when he and the team couldn't understand how Zarkon was finding them after that battle. Inevitably he had to face him and it was Black's choice to protect him, cutting off Zarkon's connections entirely. If it weren't for Black, who knows what could have happened.

The Dayan scrunched his nose. _Do you ever shut up? Sweet Daea. Even here your conversationalism is annoying._

Sorry. So how do they get back from here?

Ankary shook his head. There was something in the way he was presenting himself that said we-are-not-finished-yet. _You did not think we were just going to come here and then leave, did you?_ It would be pointless otherwise, he had to admit, but what more could they possibly do here? _Train._

Train?

 _Train._

Like sparring? Like what he did with Zarkon? Ankary shook his head. They were going to train, but not that kind of training. They can already do that in the physical world. No. This was a different kind of training. Shiro didn't even blink as Ankary was suddenly in front of him. That strong, dangerous tail coiled around his neck and squeezed. He was too much in shock to really process it until after his air flow was restricted. Reflexively he shot his hands to his throat and tried to pry it off. Ankary's expression was just as blank as always. What the hell?! Why was he choking him?!

 _I am not choking you._ What? How can he say that when he was about to pass out? Fruitlessly he continued to fight it off. Ankary's grip tightened. _I am not choking you. Focus on what I am saying._

Ankary is not choking him. In his head Shiro pictured Ankary stepping away, releasing him. That precious air sweeping into his lungs again. _I am not choking you._ He's not choking him. The iron vice grew tighter and tighter. At this point his neck would break before he suffocated. He's not choking him. Just as the edges of his vision started to cloud and he was ready to black out, it stopped. Just like that. There was no pressure on his throat and his hands weren't even raised in defense. He didn't feel Ankary withdraw his tail and step back. No. Instead he stood right where he was before, like he never moved. What?

The Dayan folded his arms. _I told you. I am not choking you. I only wanted you to think I was. The mind is easily persuadable. You succeeded in blocking off my mental attack, but only after I could have caused serious damage. You will have to be faster and stronger than that if you wish to fight off Zarkon or even Haggar. Do you understand?_ Shiro nodded. For a brief second he wondered just how long it took Ankary to learn all of these skills he knows. Ankary scoffed lightheartedly again. _Like I said, I have much more experience than you do. The life time of a human is not nearly long enough for me to teach all that I know. For now we will stick with defense against the dark arts._

Pfft. Was he a Harry Potter fan? Not once had he ever imagined Ankary to make a joke or reference. A terrible one, too. Ankary scowled at him although it didn't really make a threatening display. _Well excuse my bad humor. Comedy is not something that comes easy to me. Nor you for that matter._ Hey! Shiro's jokes aren't the best, but at least he had some semblance of humor. Lance, on the other hand, was a different story all together. Ankary gestured for him to prepare himself. _Come on, we are far from finished and you still have a long way to go._

* * *

When Shiro woke up he was on the floor of the small room Ankary led him to. He sat up and glanced around. Ankary wasn't there. How long was he out for? It felt like several vargas. Without a nearby clock he couldn't tell. Getting to his feet was a challenge. He hurt. Well, his chest hurt. Ankary must have hit him hard than he expected. Shiro stumbled to his feet when he tried to walk. His body felt heavy. Guess he had to readjust back to the laws of the physical world.

Stepping out of the room he looked down the halls. Empty. He made his way back to the training room to find his team there, all doing their separate things in their uniforms. Lance was actually practicing his aim while Hunk was tinkering with a small device in the corner. Pidge was doing stretches and Keith was fighting off one of the bots in the main area. He looked up at the clock. Only 10 doboshes since he talked with Ankary. What? There's no way they spent 10 doboshes in the astral realm. Time must be malleable depending on how reality distorts. If Allura can rip a wormhole through spacetime, then all rules can get thrown out the window.

Finally he saw Ankary sitting right where he was before, working on his report. Did that whole experience not even happen at all? Was it a dream? No. That's ridiculous. How can you just imagine all of that? The thought about what Ankary said flashed through his mind. How the mind can be very persuadable. The Dayan looked over at the black paladin and nodded to him with a smirk. Well, whether it was real or not, Ankary certainly wasn't going to tell him. It didn't matter. He remembered what happened and what he learned. That's what's important. Shiro acknowledged the greeting. "Hey, Shiro. It's about time you showed up," one of the paladins called out. "You were supposed to meet us here forever ago."

"Alright. Just give me a few ticks to change into my armor. When I get back I expect everyone to be ready to practice in formation."


End file.
